


Come Thou Bleak December Wind

by Cinnamon_Anemone



Series: Tony Stark Bingo (2019-2020) [5]
Category: Iron Man: Armored Adventures, Marvel
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Drabble, Ficlet, Flash Fic, Holidays, M/M, Microfic, New Year's Angst, Tony is a dork and Gene is a sad bitch what else is new, technically this is only implied Tony/Gene but come on, we all know what I'm about
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22064992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinnamon_Anemone/pseuds/Cinnamon_Anemone
Summary: "Come, come thou bleak December wind,And blow the dry leaves from the tree!Flash, like a Love-thought, thro'me, DeathAnd take a Life that wearies me."— Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Relationships: Gene Khan/Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark Bingo (2019-2020) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1472486
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17
Collections: Tony Stark Flash Bingo





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chatvert](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chatvert/gifts).



> My fills for the Tony Stark Flash Bingo 2019 (December round). Four cute holiday drabbles and one melancholy mini-fic to finish out a rough decade. Unlike the November fills, these are all Armored Adventures and all in the same timeline. The drabbles are little vignettes that would all have happened during the first season of the show, and the mini-fic follows many years later. None of them are directly connected, except for being chronological and taking place during the holidays.
> 
> Prompts (Card 8):  
> Joy — Happy Hogan — Snowball Fight — Hot Chocolate — New Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabble fill for the HAPPY HOGAN bingo prompt.

“Stark.”

Tony turns around, face brightening immediately. “Hey, Gene. What’s up?”

“I need an invitation to the Rhodes’ holiday party.”

“Uh… okay. I mean, yeah, sure, of course.” Tony blinks. “Why?”

“Hogan tried to invite me to his holiday party and I told him I was invited to yours already. You need to tell him I’m going or he won’t. Leave me. Alone. For the next _three weeks_ ,” Gene grits out. 

Tony’s face splits in a grin. “Okay. What do I get in return?”

Gene sighs and rolls his eyes. “I’ll write your theater paper for you.”

Tony cackles. “Deal!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabble fill for the SNOWBALL FIGHT bingo prompt.

“On your left, Rhodes!” Gene calls. 

Instinctively, Rhodes ducks right – straight into the path of Tony’s snowball. 

“I can’t believe you fell for that, Rhodey!” Tony shouts, laughing, and bumps shoulders with Gene as they duck behind cover. “Nice teamwork.” Tony’s cheeks are flushed, and his smile is infectious. Gene can’t help but smile back. Until—

“SNEAK ATTACK!!” Pepper screams, hurtling around their snowbank and winging two snowballs at them.

Tony yells garbled promises of retaliation through his mouthful of snow and takes off after her, leaving Gene behind. 

“Idiots,” Gene mutters under his breath. But he’s still smiling.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabble fill for the HOT COCOA bingo prompt.

“Marshmallows?”

Gene considers for a moment. “Sure.”

“Whipped cream?” Tony brandishes the can, and Gene squints at him. 

“...I guess.” 

Tony adds the whip. “Chocolate sprinkles?”

Gene watches in mild horror as Tony buries his own, already-extravagant hot chocolate in a coat of sprinkles. “This is disgusting, Tony.” Tony smirks and shakes the sprinkle bottle tantalizingly. Gene sighs. “Okay, fine.” And on the sprinkles go. 

Tony drinks, and when he puts his mug down, there’s a dollop of whipped cream on his nose. 

“Tony, you’ve—”

  
  
“Hm?”

Gene hides his smile behind his mug. “Nevermind.” He takes a sip. “Good chocolate.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drabble fill for the JOY bingo prompt.

_ “Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her King…” _

Roberta’s holiday playlist echoes softly up the stairs. Beside him on the bed, Tony snuffles in his sleep and drools on his textbook. Their “finals study session” had lasted about 45 minutes before becoming a “sleep-deprived genius nap session.” Gene smiles, shakes his head, and, on an impulse – runs his fingers through Tony’s hair. Tony doesn’t stir. 

_ “Joy to the world,”  _ the music repeats. Gene wonders what that would look like – joy, for the whole world. 

He wonders if it would look something like this. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fill for the NEW YEAR bingo prompt.

Gene looks down at the snow-blanketed city. At the riot of lights and revelers, even this far from Times Square. None of them see him. None of them look up. Why would they? They’re busy with their lives and their celebrations, and it’s been seven years since the sky split open and spilled out the nightmare of extinction.

Seven years since he spent a night on this planet. Seven years since he called Earth home. It seems strangely significant to be here again on the turning of the new year, though Gene can’t quite articulate why. 

The Iron Man armor lands silently beside him on the roof. 

“Mandarin.”

Gene doesn't turn to face him. “Stark.”

“So. You been keeping up your end of the deal? What’s the news from the neighborhood?”

Gene passes Tony a data chip; Tony takes it, turns it over in his fingers, and slips it into the shielded pocket on the hip of the armor. “All the details are there. The Kree offensive is escalating. Skrull incursions on unaffiliated planets have increased as a consequence, but don’t currently threaten our sector. The situation with the Shi’ar Empire is stable, for now, but I wouldn’t trust it to stay that way. And some idiot claiming to be half-human has the Sovereign all riled up, but as far as I can tell, it will remain a… personal matter rather than a diplomatic issue.” 

Tony nods. “Cool. Sounds like a shitshow. Cliff Notes version: is anybody that we need to really freak out about going to be knocking on our door in the immediate future?”

Gene shakes his head. “Not as far as I can tell. You’re staying under the radar, for now.”

“‘You’?” There’s something in Tony’s voice, but Gene can’t tell if it’s amusement or annoyance through the armor’s voice modulator. “Did you change your citizenship to Mars?”

Gene shrugs. “I am hesitant to claim affiliation with a planet that I am not welcome on.”

Tony, uncharacteristically, is quiet for a few long moments. “I guess that means you’re not planning on coming back.”

Gene glances at him over his shoulder. “What do I have to come back to?”

“Well, normally I have a pretty sweet New Year’s Eve party, when I’m not melodramatically meeting my archnemesis on the top of a skyscraper to exchange information on the state of galactic politics. You could stick around for the champagne and stupid hats next time,” Tony jokes. He always jokes when he doesn’t know how to approach something that’s actually important. That hasn’t changed. Something sharp and aching and familiar twists in Gene’s chest. 

“I’ll be on the planet periodically to deliver the intelligence you require, in accordance with the terms of my… freedom. I’m not going to leave the Earth undefended,” Gene says, knowing full well that’s not what Tony means.

“Right. Great,” Tony answers. The delivery is awkward.

The silence stretches out again. Gene can feel the weight of it, and knows he won’t be the one to break it.

“I miss you,” Tony blurts. And the shattered silence blooms into something much heavier, and far more dangerous.

Gene doesn’t say anything for a long, long time. 

“I can’t come back, Tony.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the faceplate retract, and Tony nods slowly. “I know.” It’s good to hear his voice – his real voice – again.

For almost ten minutes, they stand together, not saying a word, and watch the festivities. A distant cheer goes up as the ball drops in Times Square, followed by a less synchronized, but no less enthusiastic cheer from the partygoers in the streets below. 

Tony reaches out, and the rest of the armor folds away. The warm, human weight of his hand comes to rest on Gene’s shoulder. Squeezes gently, like the reassuring touch of a friend. “Happy New Year, Gene.”

On a balcony across the street, someone sets off an illegal firecracker, to the general delight of the crowd, who take it as a signal to break into a ragged chorus of _Auld Lang Syne._

 _‘Happy New Year.'_ Gene knows it won’t be happy, and he doubts anything about it will be meaningfully new. It’s such a small thing, after all, in the grand scheme: a single orbit around the Terran sun. It’s funny, isn’t it? This human fixation on marking the passage of time in such small increments. Celebrating the slow march of entropy with such boundless hope. 

He looks up. He can’t see the stars through the city glow, but he doesn’t use the power of the Rings to augment his sight. He knows they’re there. Teeming with more strangeness and wonder and danger than anyone on this tiny spinning rock can imagine. He wonders, if he asked, if Tony would go with him. It’s probably best for everyone if he never finds out.

He reaches up to rest his hand on top of Tony’s, and squeezes back.

“Happy New Year, Tony.”


End file.
